Of 60 candidates who filed nomination, only 43 to contest Rajasthan civic body by-polls

The voting will take place in 18 wards of 16 municipalities in Rajasthan’s nine districts on July 26, and the counting of the same will be held on July 28.

As many as 43 candidates will be contesting the Rajasthan by-polls to be conducted in the municipalities of the state’s nine districts, news agency PTI has reported.

The by-polls will be conducted at a time when the political tussle in the state continues over political appointments and cabinet expansion. (Photo by Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times)

A total of 60 candidates had filed 67 nomination papers for the bypolls. Chitra Gupta, the secretary of the State Election Commission (SEC), told PTI that after an evaluation of the papers and withdrawal of nominations by candidates, 43 are now left in the fray. Moreover, one candidate has been elected unopposed.

The voting will take place in 18 wards of 16 municipalities of the nine districts on July 26, and the counting of the same will be held on July 28.

The by-polls will be conducted at a time when the political tussle in the state continues with independent politicians, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) turncoats in the ruling Congress and other party leaders demanding political appointments and cabinet expansion.

As many as six BSP legislators joined the Congress in September 2018, and along with the independent MLAs, they are mounting pressure on the Ashok Gehlot-led state government to bag their stakes in the cabinet and the political appointments.

Meanwhile, 15 Congress leaders, who lost the elections in 2018, wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi last month, citing that the Rajasthan government is working on the “whims” of the independents and the BSP turncoats. “The party workers and voters are feeling cheated,” they said in the letter seen by HT.